By early July, meteorologists were seeing signals that La Niña - the climate pattern that usually spells drought in the southern U.S. - was abating.

Find out about the phenomenon behind La Niña, the extensive cooling of the central and eastern Pacific.

The weather pattern called La Niña - which refers to cooling sea temperatures in the eastern equatorial region of the Pacific Ocean - is partly responsible for the hot, dry winter that created the current situation.